Revision as of 11:14, 6 December 2006

This page is made to serve as a guide to Arch (and possibly other) Linux users
who wish to use the Mozilla Thunderbird email client to access their webmail
service. These services would be ones like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, Lycos,
GMail, Libero, Tiscali, etc.

The page consists of two major parts: one which specifically addresses Mozilla
thunderbird and it's Webmail extension, and one which lists out and attempts to
explain the installation and configuration of stand-alone programs that allow
other email clients to achieve the same functionality.

Using thunderbird and it's Webmail extension

Where to find it

First of all, the webmail extension can be found at
this site. It contains most of the
information required to properly install the extension in the
FAQ and
Account Setting pages.

Installing the extension

Remember, you must also install the component extensions, or you will not be
able accesss your mail. The Webmail extension is only a 'wrapper' of sorts. For
example, if you wish to access your GMail account, you first have to download
and install the Webmail extension, restart Thunderbird, then install the GMail
extension, restart Thunderbird again, then configure the extensions as your
computer setup requires.

Other useful information

After installing the Webmail extension, you can access the preferences for it by
clicking Tools->Extensions.

If the Webmail extension says "Server status is ERROR", this means that it could
not use the ports 110, 25, and/or 143 for setting up a POP, SMTP, or IMAP
gateway, respectively.
This happens because you will (and should) be running Thunderbird as a normal
user. However, ArchLinux reserves ports below 1024 for the root user only.
Allowing normal users to access these ports is not recommended.
As the FAQ answer on the Webmail website
says, change the preferences on the Webmail extension to use a port higher than
1024 (1025 and above work for normal users). Don't forget to change your email
account settings to access localhost at whatever ports you set the
Webmail extension to use.

Stand-alone applications (Use webmail through any email client)

Hotwayd - runs through xinetd - can be used transparently through any email client